1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of computers and similar technologies, and in particular to software utilized in this field. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to providing functional context within an actively scrolling view pane.
2. Description of the Related Art
When viewing or editing documents that have functional sections or titled data, it is sometimes possible to be viewing a portion of the document and not be able to tell what section or function is being viewed. For example, FIG. 1, labeled Prior Art, shows a viewport with source code visible. The method that is being viewed is longer in content than the length of the viewport. Therefore, while scrolling the viewport, a user does not always have knowledge of the title or name of the section being viewed.
Known integrated developer environments (IDEs) have attempted to address this issue by highlighting the method name being viewed in a hierarchical outline. However, the highlighting of the method is based on the location of the editing cursor. Accordingly, it is possible to select some text within a method, or actuate the cursor to a position within a method, and scroll the viewport away from that method. This action can cause the highlight to be misleading regarding which section or function is located within the code as compared with a section being viewed. For example, FIG. 1 shows a line selected. If an outline view shows that the method createView( ) is being edited and the view is scrolled to a new area within the code, the outline will not provide information regarding to where the view has been scrolled.